The Last Weekend In June

We are just a little behind on our posts. We will be caught up soon!

Heading into the last weekend in June, we have been surprised by the decrease in the type of estate sales that interest us. Don't get us wrong. There have been some good weeks and there have been some great sales this year but it just seems like estate sales have changed a lot over the last year. Last year, almost weekly from April through October, our list of potential sales was long and we had to eliminate some from the list due to time constraints. This year, we have often struggled to come up with a list that would keep us occupied more than four hours. There have been just as many estate sales this year but so many are in "pristine", high end homes that just don't have the type of things we like. It's still early in the year and we never lose hope. Even if there is only one sale that peaks our interest, we will be there. As it turns out, that was exactly the case this week...only one sale.

It was an eventful week even before the weekend began. It has started to feel like summer and, with that, comes the occasional odd storm. There was a severe thunderstorm watch for our area earlier in the week and the potential for a tornado. Tornadoes are rare for our area and we did not have one but the conditions provided for some unique colors in the sky just after the storm had passed.

At first, the sky was a very weird shade of yellow that seemed to change the color of everything on the ground. It was not enough to hold back the rainbow though! 

The yellow gave way to pink as the sun began to set. Mother Nature put on quite a show!

We also got to wish our niece a happy 9th birthday during the week. It was a special day for her and a fun time for all! 

When Saturday arrived, as mentioned earlier, we had just one sale on our list. It was described as "stuffed" and "vintage" and was just twenty minutes from our house. 

The sale was run by a tag sale company that we know every well and the fact that there were things out on the lawn was a good sign. That is where we started and we found some good things out there right away.

The entrance to the house was through this cool, old screen door. We were pretty hopeful that we would continue to find more good things inside.

The basement had this great old bar with some pretty cool barstools. We did not find anything behind the bar (though Rob looked thoroughly) but we did find a few things in the basement. We also found a few things on the other two floors. By the time we left an hour later, we were the proud new owners of some Christmas things, some records, some books, some vintage greeting cards, some ashtrays and lots of other things. Although, we had only one sale, it was a good one and we went home happy!

Here is what we brought home with us:

A pair of 10 inch records

Some gardening books from 1952

Some vintage greeting cards

A deck of TWA playing cards and an old Guinness bottle opener from Ireland

A ceramic dog, a ceramic cat that gets attached to the house and salt and pepper shakers (the toilet is one shaker and the man is the other). The dog and the salt and pepper shakers are marked Japan.

Two old ashtrays and two McDonald's giveaways from the 1970's

A giant Santa blow mold from the 1960's

An old plastic Santa wall hanging, two knee hugger elves (both marked Japan), a package of Christmas bulbs and a vintage Christmas card

It may have been a short weekend of saling but it was a fun sale and we did find some good things. With the upcoming three day Fourth of July weekend coming up, we suspect that our saling opportunities will be limited once again. We're not worried. The big weeks will come again. We feel it. And, until then, we will find other things to do. Together. After all, that's what will always count more than anything else.